Plakboek

Of open whiteboards

2009-11-08T05:04:00Z

Wiimote Whiteboard IR Pen V2 by Adam Melancon

If a person creates an activity for an interactive whiteboard using a particular piece of software designed for a particular brand, they often cannot share it wiht someone using a different brand of interactive whiteboard. The question has been asked if there is a generic or open-source software to create learning activities.

It is called vendor lockin and it sucks. To a degree, all the big players are guilty of it and it is part of the reason why opensource software and open standards are so important. Worth reading up the related article on Wikipedia about this topic.

We use an Australian made IWB board called a 2Touch that doesn't require any software to drive .. even works with a netbook running Ubuntu remix as the operating system. Web based is the way to go in my mind so something like KindleLab is worth exploring. I have even had fun using MIT inspired program Scratch to make IWB activites and again, it can be readily used with any IWB system. In my mind it is important that teachers and students can adapt and reprogram the learning objects created.

On Friday, I was talking with a developer who was interested in projecting Apple iPhone applications onto a whiteboard. I didn't realize there were tools around for doing this for free or that they can automatically scale up for larger screen formats. His interest was in teachers sharing applications for free or even opting to sell them online for a couple of dollars and was sounding out my thoughts.

With the Google inspired Android only a couple of years down the track, things are going to look very interesting.

Powered by Drupal

2009-11-03T11:40:33Z

Westall website by plakboek

I needed a fresh look for our college website and called upon Donna from Creative Contingencies to lend a hand. Compared to our old default themed school website, her new theme is a huge improvement. I am particularly delighted how she used Gimp to create a banner with the suspension bridge image from our Balook Camp in Gippsland.

I notice that we are not the only ones using the open source software Drupal to drive our online content, it is also being used by the Australian Prime Minister and the Whitehouse.

A year ago, Peter got our first open source powered website up and running running. Since then, Arran has done a great job with the upgrade to Version 6 and maintaining the engine that powers this website, today finishing an important upgrade. At this sage I need to shuffle the blocks about. do some housekeeping and rethink the entire site architecture.

Early days yet but at least it is looking much better.

Critical path towards the exams

2009-10-13T09:09:24Z

Exams :( [Day 12] by Alex France

Today I had another year 12 Information Technology revision class about project management whilst we work our way towards the end of year Victorian examinations.

I talked about the chap who cuts the grass with a junior apprentice. The boss rides the lawn mower (50 min) whilst the apprentice does the edging (30 min) and sweeps the path (10 min). There is only one mower, edger and broom. The broom can only be used after the lawn is cut and edging is done. The group had a good laugh when the remaining few finally understood that the apprentice was on the critical path (pun not intended).

I am enjoying going over the past exams. Students are now in awe at the work that is put in to assemble these when I walked them through an examiners report. My mind keeps turning to all the delicious discussions we have post examination time for particular questions.

Iwonder if any other subject deconstructs their assessment tasks with such energy and enthusiasm? It is worth noting at this point that QLD seems to do quite well without any formal state-wide exams. Hmmm :-)

Fast Fourier transforms

2009-10-11T12:33:34Z

Windows wireless networking by plakboek

The CSIRO ought to get more recognition for their pioneering work in this field of developing the Fast Fourier Transformation chips that lead to the development of WLAN or Wi-Fi networks. It came out of the research they were conducting in radioastronomy and is a great example how blue sky research can often bring about commercial spin offs or advantages down the track that may not be imediately obvious or aparent.

The ABC Catalyst science show gave some good background to this work and their legal fight. It is a pity that this history is only given a brief mention on Wikipedia .. perhaps somebody could fill in the gap ;-)

Crikey, I recall all the fast Fourier transformation calculations that were crunched through slowly in Fortran on the mainframe that underpinned the mysterious workings of the NMR and IR machines I used back in the early 1980s when I worked at ICI Australia. To build a chip to come up with these calculations was a huge step forward.

Holding your breath for more Internet

2009-10-09T00:32:33Z

a champ at holding his breath by Pfau

The Education Minister Bronwyn Pike today announced that Victorian government schools will enjoy free internet access from the first day of term one in 2010, "All Victorian government schools will have their internet charges covered by the Brumby Labor Government." Whilst this has some cost benefits for schools, schools still have a role to play rather than leave the Internet taps left open and running on full.

There is only so much you can shove down a pipe at once or to put it another way, inviting more people to eat your birthday cake means that the birthday party will take longer (lag) and there will be less for each to eat (bandwidth).

Our experience to date is that if we didn't have in place some mechanisms to monitor and gently cap the usage (ala bandwidth throttling controls for admin / staff / students) it can run out of control and everybody suffers. This has always been the dilemma of the virtual commons. There are some great commercial and open source tools that help us manage and track our usage.

I once used the rule of thumb that you should at least be able to click on a link and hold your breath until the page refreshes (30 seconds) although lately, I notice that people are less patient and get angry if there isn't a response after a few seconds.

QSITE09 Rocked

2009-10-07T22:25:12Z

iPhone Home Screens by Lee Bennett

Every participant at the QSITE 09 conference "Beyond the Flashing Lights" was given an Apple iPod touch and the technology experiment really rocked. We will certainly be considering this for the ACEC2010 conference in Melbourne next year (April and the same time as our International Comedy Festival :-)

For those of you that are wondering what is an iPod touch, think Apple iPhone with wireless but no phone. I was amazed at their Unconference session with very close coupling with twitter with a back channel .. imagine a projection screen to the side of the keynote where conference participants and those outside can post questions, links and other thoughts. #qsite09

The unit is robust enough for classroom use and there has been some positive feedback from schools here that are using these as a class set etc. I am going to get one for myself as soon as I drop my Palm Pilot .. the damn thing keeps on going and going and going (sigh) ..

Here is a cute Teacher Tube video link that will put a smile on your faces of a 2 year old, navigating and posting an e-mail with this unit. Take a look at and tell me that kids can’t learn using mobile devices or what will happen when they are immersed into a traditional school system that frowns on using handheld technology. Here is a great list of links that surround the history of the elusive Apple tablet computer.

Fascinating stuff. I now really want to get our hands on a class set of these units and an phone for myself. :-)

Public music spaces and places

2009-09-14T07:05:03Z

Birthday Cake - Candles by Jessica N. Diamond

It seems that every time your phone rings and you are in a public space, you could be contributing to a legal suit with your phone tune.

The exact copyright definition of what it means to perform arts in a public space seems to vary (as we would expect it to). From what I can read, virtually every auditorium, classroom, meeting room or staff lounge is a public auditorium. If the public can be excluded and every one there was your friend, the performance would most likely not be considered as public and you would be legal.

Whilst it seems as if any clear legal interpretation is going to be a mystery wrapped in an enigma, it would be prudent to ask all unfriendly, strange or new staff to leave the room when singing Happy Birthday (the song is owned by Time Warner). Anybody that joins in to sings this song and provides false witness or claims to friendship is not only dishonest and opening the entire group to legal action, they will probably hold their hand out for a slice of cake too.

For now I will stick to whistling open source music such as , threaten my students with an improvised jazz items on my clarinet or saxophone and wonder about the legal issues of a song loop that is stuck inside my head for half the day. Should I pay royalties or only if I admit this in public ;-)

Compared to some of the heavy copyright material we get to use in the classroom, this is great discussion fodder with some clear examples and range of views that students can debate, consider and reflect upon.

Technology behind the magic

2009-09-13T10:03:27Z

Inside iPhone by lietus

A colleague circulated on the year 7-10 list, some great worksheets for students to guide their dissection and the examination of the inside workings of an old computer.

I did hear about a research project that asked different generations to draw what they thought the inside of a radio, iPhone or iPod could looked like. The school aged students had had trouble visualising a circuit board, describing a computer chip or understand some basic electronics. They had no idea and had trouble speculating what was inside these devices. Is this now a generation that treats consumer items as throw-away, black box electronics?

Arthur C. Clarke once remarked "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Perhaps because we are surrounded by so much equipment that cannot be serviced or opened. Perhaps this reflects the decline in school based technology activities that once provided some hands-on experiences. Compare them with a family in India that can service and repair their own mobile phones and consider where real innovation is going to happening.

The OLPC XO-1 computers can be repaired by a child with a screwdriver. Watch this cool video on YouTube for details. Try that with a Netbook ;-)

I would like my students to appropriate and embrace technology with reason and understanding, not cloak it in commercial mysticism then worship it with a misplaced awe.

Science and Language Centre

2009-08-01T04:55:22Z

Iliad by magnuscanis

Our college has won a major grant for a science and language centre.

The college was awarded close to $2 million in 2009 from the Federal Government towards the construction of a new science and language centre to be completed in 2010.

For a school that has worked long and hard to secure funding, this is both an great addition to our college facilities and exciting development.

Bilingualism can give students great opportunities for future employment and has many other advantages. Our Bilingual program has operated since 1997 when it was an early pilot. Today, students gain subject literacy in two languages - Chinese/English Science and Greek/English Mathematics.

You can read more about this in the local NeosKosmos.COM newspaper.

Souls for Sale

2009-07-25T12:35:28Z

souls for sale by killthebird

Consider the amount of commercial software that is bulk purchased to be loaded onto each government computer, what it costs and what is actually productively used on each desktop. Much of this software is rarely used. Often is purchased or bundled, 'just in case' it is needed.

it is easier to deploy the same software onto all the computers in an organisation. This is sometimes called an SOE or Standard Operating Environment. This can reduce the deployment overhead for IT technicians and can help give a each desktop a familiar look and fee. The downside is the opportunity cost of what could otherwise have be done with the funds. Whilst the state can help provide support with software selection, validating training and encouraging innovation, it should not condone a state endorsed monopoly of any software product or act in a way that could stifle innovation by mandating conformity.

Schools should pay for all their commercial software licensing outright. If they are smart enough to make strategic spending decisions on good software products, then let them use their funds in the way that bests suits their local needs and save money not spent their global school budget. By illustration, schools seem to be able to select, purchase and deploy text books for individual classes without the state government negotiating purchase deals on their behalf or demanding a standard book reading environment.

It is a phony to compare state-wide purchase discounts as software pricing models are not built on traditional ideas of limited supply and demand. I groan when I hear the claim that "all educational department school software is free" as it miss-represents the revenue that is still spent on stitching up these bulk deals.

Whilst I welcome any increase school funding, please let us deliver it all to the school and thus to all students.

Apollo online

2009-07-18T12:13:51Z

Apollo 11 Neil Armstrong in LM by FlyingSinger

It is interesting to track the 40th anniversary of the humans first setting foot on the Moon with the NASA Apollo 11 mission that is being re-enacted in real time, delayed by 40 years, using Twitter.

Whilst browsing an interesting podcast describing why the astronauts could not sleep on the moon I bumped into this wikipedia page about Jack Garman and the spacecraft computer system error 1202 that nearly aborted the landing

It took some quick thinking by the support staff back on Earth to figure this out and again emphasises that like many missions before, this one was a team effort and win for the team.

The Dish and Moon

2009-07-14T13:20:46Z

The Dish and Moon by plakboek

The countdown has started towards the launch of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The excitement is starting to bubble over at Parkes around the radio telescope. You can follow what is happening at these websites.

http://www.wechoosethemoon.com
http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au

I wish the CSIRO Parkes team all the very best for their open days over this weekened.

I'll be following this space science event with my twitter account by tracking the following two NASA twitter posters.

AP11_SPACECRAFT
Apollo 11 - Preparation for first lunar landing still on schedule. 8:54 AM Jun 28th

AP11_CAPCOM
Houston Control - official Apollo 11 countdown begins 1:10 AM Jul 11th

I think I will celebrate the event over this weekend by inviting some friends for some dinner to watch the video clip of The Dish. :-)

Chicken Stock

2009-07-12T06:54:46Z

Chicken Stock by plakboek

I have had fun over the last six months, cooking different recipes with a slow cooker that was a Christmas gift. Here I am making some chicken soup stock.

It is easy to make, just fill up the cooker with all the ingredients including a chicken carcass, chopped carrots, celery, onion and a bay leaf. Switching the cooker on, I leave it to bubble and cook overnight. In the morning I filter out all the remaining vegetables and bones. After chilling the liquid stock in the fridge, the fat can be easily skimmed off, leaving behind a chicken stock that I can use for other recipes.

You can view a slideshow of this cooker in action here.

Counting on the Netbook Abacus

2009-07-04T00:44:43Z

Abacus by allspice1

Bryn Jones noted on the eChalk list that if you are a student in NSW DET you have to use a Netbook - no choice and that if you are a WA DET student you are not allowed to use a Netbook - no choice. In VIC DEECD, things are more muddled. Not a criticism of anyone but it doesn't bode well for National Curriculum how states can come to totally different Netbook conclusions from the same starting information.

I wonder if some are scared that schools might do something different with their technology funding for eLearning? .. hmm, I that has already happened. Suppose this was about the introduction of calculators:

We would have a state group digging in around a contract signed to deliver commercial electronic cash tills to every student, a state group importing millions of oddly circular shaped slide rulers that use a novel calculation system based on natural logarithms supplied in a booklet of tables, a state group insisting that we should only use ergonomic built devices with non-interchangeable AAA batteries and volatile memory, poor school teachers making their own abacus with beads and wire, confused parents scratching their heads whilst wondering what happened to pencil and paper whilst smart students sneak into school, cheap solar powered models they bought from the local supermarket.

We loose so much when we are just focused on what students and schools should not do .. rather than engaging with research to help determine what can help work best, provide seed grants to stimulate innovation and unbiased training to help educators make well informed and practical choices. Perhaps some state bodies have lost the plot and are digging in to enforce a centralist control model that suits their needs, not the flexible learning spaces many of us are now building for our students. Whilst it is hard to predict any technology trend, it is foolish to pretend that schools not well placed to make good decisions about how to spend money to meet their local needs.

Nobody has a monopoly on a good idea.

Obama on Twitter

2009-07-03T12:04:57Z

Obama on Twitter by plakboek

It has been interesting to watch the recent growth of interest by our government and politicians in the role and value of online social networks.

Last night whilst driving home I heard that the state government is going to give serious consideration to the use of Twitter and Facebook to communicate bushfire alerts. Earlier this week I was following a fascinating series of discussions about Government2.0 and the Public Sphere headed by Senator Kate Lundy in Canberra. For both, this is not just about broadcasting news. It is about engaging with the wider public in the issues that matter.

A bit earlier and I recieved an e-mail about President Obama joining my twitter followers. Of course I know that this is very probably an automatic reply to counter-subscribe ..

Just that it caught my eye and made me suddenly realize again, how small the world has become.

Smiley Fritz

2009-07-01T14:55:38Z

Smiley Fritz by plakboek

I forgot to publish this astrophotograph, taken soon after sunset on 1 December 2008

Ow well, better late than never.

It is a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter with a crescent moon nearby. The two planets are about two degrees apart in the Western Sky. All three objects will lie within the borders of Sagittarius.

This conjunction quickly acquired the nick name "Smiley Fritz" because of the happy face that briefly appeared one evening.

Morning triangle of Moon, Venus and Mars

2009-06-30T10:21:33Z

moon, venus and mars by plakboek

View showing the Moon, Venus and Mars, a planetary convergence that formed a triangle in the North Eastern, morning Melbourne sky on the 21 May 2009. In another hour the sun would rise and the pale red dot of Mars would fade from view.

This photograph was a long exposure taken over one second. The camera braced against a pole at about 6:00 am in the morning. It is the best of several images that I took.

You can view some of my other astrophotographs here.

Technology pollution

2009-06-29T12:13:27Z

Bushfire smoke by plakboek

Just thinking about technology pollution of the electrical and noise varieties.

T7, T8 and T9 are the numbers on the huge, high voltage transmission pylons positioned on the corners of our school. Even just standing about on yard duty looking up at the overhead power lines is enough to swell our chests with pride in "Man's ability to generate electricity" (apologies to Darryl and The Castle circa 1997)

Seriously though, new staff sometimes ask me about the hazards of living under power lines. My principal just points out relevant research literature and to date it indicates that this is probably more of an eye-sore than a brain-sore.

"On balance, the scientific evidence does not indicate that exposure to 50 Hz EMFs found around the home, the office or near power lines is a hazard to human health." ARPANSA

" .. these major reviews have reported that the body of data, as large as it is, does not demonstrate that exposure to power-frequency magnetic fields causes cancer or other health risks, although the possibility cannot be dismissed." SDGE

There is an interesting point about the background white noise that can fill our technology spaces. The server room is now unbearable from the din generated by the rack mounted beasts we installed. By contrasts, the lab packed with Apple iMacs next door is practically silent. I have some good Delicious links about the topic and an excellent white noise generator that teachers can demonstrate to students.

There are probably more important things for us to worry about such as vaccination refusal, mysterious increase in allergies, UV solar radiation, occupational stress from disruptive technologies and a sedentary lifestyle behind the keyboard.

Speaking of which ..

MoodleCommons.org

2009-06-26T12:39:31Z

MoodleCommons.org
Originally uploaded by plakboek

An interesting place worth exploring if you want to share information and resources is the learning commons built into MoodleCommons.org.

http://moodlecommons.org

This online space is built up of courses that have been created and shared by other Moodle users. Why not become part of the Moodle revolution and upload your course or help improve those posted by others. :-)

Broken glass on the wall

2009-06-20T14:17:51Z

Flass walls by plakboek

The first rule of censorship is to ban all talk about it. The last thing that censors will tolerate is free and open discussion about censorship. Is there room in this world to question oppression? What trust should we place in electronic filters to preserve the news we should be reading?

I am reflecting on the mandatory Internet filter scheme that was nearly considered for all Australians.

Whilst we are sleeping, most of the proxy based filtering in Australia is compiled from sets of links purchased / available from groups based overseas. This rather tedious work is done with bots. Think of these bots as mindless electronic sheep that graze upon the content on the web, chewing over the words until they taste something strange, doing most of the work of an official censor. For some reason I think of them wearing a pocket protector brimming with red pencils.

Whilst we can pretend that somethings never existed and must never be discussed, an online censorship system can easily move beyond a border protection role. Over time it will adjust our memories by altering the landscape as records are eliminated from our gaze. It will become a furnace that consumes online content in its effort to create an innocent and pure world with purged archives, no nasty words, no images of offensive people, no history.

A world where we could not just block from our social network contact list any of the less desirable friends, with just a few more clicks we could permanently erase them from our lives.

That kind of world is still fresh in the memories of some. It still scares the hell out of me.

“Censorship, like charity, should begin at home, but unlike charity, it should end there.” - Clare Boothe Luce

EDIT: Tonight I watched a TED video about how Twitter made history. It describes some of the online tools such as Twitter and Facebook are changing the political landscape to help citizens in repressive regimes report on real news and briefly bypass censors. The very nature of politics as we know it is changing as we see the end of traditional top-down control of the news. I also had the chance to glance over this Education.AU report about Web2.0 filtering that discusses some of the issues and recommends publishing and sharing best practice and knowledge in regard to incorporating Web 2.0 in teaching and learning.

It is exciting to see this gain traction and start to make a difference.

Fishing for a new wave

2009-06-17T13:38:14Z

Google Wave by marketingfacts

There has been some concerns posted online about where applications such as Google Wave would fit into schools and if they should be blocked.

Trying to control this new technology is akin to crossing the Internet river by holding your arms out wider and no, it doesn't work if you just turn your back. You will get left behind waiting for it to freeze over in order to walk across. Learning how to swim is a good start but isn't done by splashing in the wading pool, teaching others how to swim is better.

When I ran this analogy past a friend who works at Vic Roads he added with a grin "So the smart ones are those who build their own boat and go fishing." He does have a point.

Stephen and I recall a Victorian principal (now retired) who thought in the mid 1990's to deal with the issue of school e-mail by mandating that all electronic messages typed at school be read by the principal to check that no spelling mistakes could be even accidentally posted. Whilst we can laugh now, the idea was given serious consideration to help deal with the unforeseen but anticipated disaster of Unsolicited Bulk Spelling Mistakes originating from school.

I am not arguing for an open season as there is still a critical role for educators. As has been mentioned here before, we will need to give this disruptive technology time to adjust, find its feet then explore a space for it in our schools.

Open Education workshop in Sydney

2009-06-16T12:15:02Z

Open Education OZ-Teachers by plakboek

An Open Education workshop was held at Macquarie University MELCOE, Sydney during November 2008. A key activity of the workshop were the facilitated discussions to contribute to an open education strategy for cross sector collaboration, and to build skills and document best practice for the future. I particularly enjoyed the lighting talks.

You can listen to a recording of my lighting talk and slideshow here. Don't just listen to mine, have a squiz at the other great speakers.

This picture is of some fellow educators on the oz-teachers mailing list. They are a great bunch and I was glad to be able to meet and greet them. You can view a slideshow of photographs that I took at this workshop.

All up, a great chance to think about the direction we are heading and some of the exciting things on the horizon. Well done to the team that worked hard in the background to bring this all together.

Power to the people

2009-06-13T14:57:47Z

Auto electrical fuses by plakboek

During the last interstate road trip, we purchased a 300W electrical power inverter and installed it in the car. It enabled us to recharge our laptop and a swag of electrical equipment using the 12V car electrical system. At the end of the trip a fuse blew so I took some photographs of the auto fuse system, the repair and the inverter and the power point that we used. You can view a slideshow I made for my science students.

Talking about power points .. one of the great ways to make e-friends when traveling overseas with the ACCE 2008 study tour crew was to carry a power board. We would walk about airport terminals looking for power wall points to jointly plug in our laptops to charge etc. I am getting better at spotting them near cafes, pylons or behind vending machines.

Only once I have been asked to move on in Federation Square when somebody accused me of stealing electricity from under a table in their courtyard. I apologised, and took my patronage elsewhere. I wonder what I would be taking if I was to use a solar panel to recharge from their indoor lighting. Probably an urban myth but I did hear of one farmer that was able to tap electricity from the Km of overhead power cables spanning his property by the current induced in his fencing wires.

The day might come when student lockers come with a power point, unless of course the thoughts of students hand-cranking their own electricity has more appeal. Then again, with enough twists and a good induction system, they could be cranking their way into the school grid to generate enough electricity and energy to pay off their lunch. Certainly sounds more productive than making them jog around the school oval to warm up. Imagine issuing a 103 Kilo Joule energy debit to be filled instead of a one hour after-school detention?

Kaguya impact on Moon

2009-06-10T13:04:26Z

Earth Set Nov 7 2007 by TailspinT

The Japanese Spacecraft Kaguya is predicted to impact on the lunar surface at 4:30 am Melbourne time. I will be poking my head outside with a telescope and battle the cold to see if I can spot anything. If you are reading this on Thursday morning, the collision has already happened and you can probably view the pictures (if any).

http://spaceweather.com for details.

From my copy of the open source software Stellarium, from Melbourne the Moon will be to the NE and about 80 degrees high (just look up .. no need to use the sofware like I just did!) .. albeit probably behind a sea of clouds.

As my wife points out, the last time she looked at space junk was an inbound NASA Skylab space station in Western Australia with no space repellent to keep the debris away. Kaguya here is a massive 2,900 kg and it will hit the Moon at an oblique angle, traveling at 6,000 km/hr and no atmosphere to slow it down. Something is bound to happen.

"Whether it tumbles and bounces along the lunar surface or runs headlong into some towering crater wall, no one can say. Clues to the end of Kaguya will come on June 10th in the form of an explosive flash (or lack thereof) and high-res images of the crash site taken by future lunar orbiters."

So I don't expect any debris clouds spiraling back to Earth or blinding flash... just a vague chance of spotting something through binoculars or largish telescope. We lost ours with the Gippsland bush fires that ran through our school camp back in February so I am relying on one that a friend loaned. Fingers crossed ..

If nothing happens, I'll just wave my fist at the moon and get back to dreams of writing reports.

Not just for turtles

2009-06-10T06:27:56Z

FishiPod by denn

Somebody raised the question today, how should we deal with iPods in the classroom or if they should be banned.

At our college we expect all earbuds out, speakers off, screens closed or turned over when the class is working together or if the teacher is talking. I usually only need to clap my hands twice and silently stare at offenders to get them to comply. Neighboring friends usually help with a friendly poke in the ribs.

As we see it, playing or watching an iPod is akin to distracting your focus during a lesson by talking when the teacher or class needs the full attention of everybody. Really, it is nothing special and normal classroom code of conduct applies.

The real lesson is to teach them to promptly modify their behaviour when needed. As one person nicely put it this helps to "stop students from retreating into their shell and behaving like a turtle".

The iPods can stay, the students just have to learn.